1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which prints on a print tape as well as a hard medium like a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing apparatuses for an optical disk, which perform printing on the label side of a recording medium, such as an optical disk, have been developed. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication JP 2003-72175 discloses a printing apparatus which performs printing on an optical disk. The printing apparatus comprises a tray which supports an optical disk, and a printing mechanism which performs printing on the optical disk supported by the tray.
The tray is so provided as to be movable between the interior of a main body and the exterior thereof. The printing mechanism has a movable carriage. The carriage is located at a predetermined position in the main body, and moves on the tray retained in the main body. A thermal head is mounted on the carriage, and an ink ribbon cassette holding an ink ribbon is detachably mounted on the carriage. The printing apparatus performs thermal transfer printing on an optical disk, supported on the tray placed in the main body, using the ink ribbon by the thermal head which is mounted on the carriage and moves.
There are widely used printing apparatuses for tape printing, which print on a print tape and cut the tape to produce labels. According to this type of printing apparatus, a tape cassette holding a print tape and an ink ribbon is mounted in a cassette receiving section in the main body, the thermal head is driven to perform thermal transfer printing on the print tape fed out, using the ink ribbon, and the printed print tape is discharged out of the main body from a discharge port and is then cut by a cutter provided near the discharge port, providing a label. Such a printing apparatus which prints on a print tape is disclosed in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication JP 7-314747.
There may be a case where it is desirable for the management purpose that a string of characters like a title should be printed on the label side of an optical disk and a label having the same string of characters printed thereon as the character string printed on the label side of the optical disk should be pasted on a disk storage case for the optical disk.
In such a case, a character string like a title relating to the contents of electronic data recorded on the optical disk is printed on the label side of the optical disk with the printing apparatus for an optical-disk printing, and a label is created by printing the same character string as the one printed on the optical disk on a tape using the printing apparatus for tape printing, and the label is pasted on a disk storage case for the optical disk.
In a case where printing is directly performed on the label side of an optical disk and printing is performed on a tape for a label to be passed on a disk case as discussed previously, however, discrete printing with two printing apparatuses, one for optical-disk printing and the other for tape printing, are required.
Often is a case where it is required to print a necessary character string on the label side of an optical disk, or print such a character string on a labeling tape, regardless of the relationship between an optical disk and its storage case. In this case, two printing apparatuses of different kinds should also be prepared.
The inventors of the present invention have made an intensive study on a printing apparatus which has a single thermal head and a single printing section, and can print on an optical disk and a print tape for creating a label.
Because such a printing apparatus has a capability of printing on a print tape, the printing apparatus has a cutting mechanism. If printing on a print tape to be cut and printing on an optical disk which cannot be cut are carried out with a common printing section, however, the operation of the cutting mechanism, when operated at the time of printing on the optical disk, may damage the optical disk, or the cutting mechanism designed for cutting a sheet-like print tape may break down when used on the optical disk.